Fascinated by the Nazarene but unimpressed by religion!

No Smoke Without Fire

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall find comfort in cheap smokes and liquor.’

One of the things that puzzles me the most in this space-time dream in which we find ourselves, is why so many of us are addicted to the dreaded nicotine! Oops ~ before proceeding I’d better set the record straight; I use the word ‘us’ figuratively, trying not to appear as some form of self-righteous Puritan to my faithful blog readers.

One of the few benefits of my sheltered, Northern Irish Presbyterian upbringing was that I never have, presently do not and hopefully never will smoke the diabolical invention known as the cigarette. Instead, my addiction of choice became Charismatic religion but that’s another story that you might have already come across in my little memoir, ‘The Prodigal Prophet’. No, I write here as a recovering religious junkie, though hopefully one with a deep compassion for those chained to the cancer inducing weed.

We’ve been bombarded with all the dreadful facts regarding the ill effects of tobacco smoking and yet multitudes the world over are still hooked on the experience. This loyalty to the ciggies reminds me of my loyalty to religion and it ‘s got me thinkin’ outside the box.

Here goes with my conclusion!

Tobacco smoking is a religious experience

‘No, Dylan. I think you’ve got it mixed up with the wacky backy, weed, grass puffin’ of the Indian Holy men and their contemporary chilled imitators.’

Smoke and Fire have always been around the religious scene. Burnt offerings were at the very birth of attempts to keep the gods happy. For some reason these divinities were understood to love the frenzied smell of cooking dead meat, human or animal. Generally these deities were assumed to be ‘pissed’ off with the human race and could only have their anger averted by a bloody death and the sub-sequential roasting of flesh ~ clearly the gods above weren’t vegetarians but real meat approving guys and gals. Projections of ourselves perhaps!

The fallacy in this whole religious model of course is that the gods weren’t there in the first place and that the genuine Source of all wasn’t and never could be ‘at enmity’ with His/Her/It’s creative extensions. viz. us. At its basic essence the religious sacrifice can be seen as a self inflicted death sentence transferred onto some poor sheep or in the worst case scenario, human child. Why such a need for these barbaric rituals?

Simple ~ human guilt. A deep sense of inner loathing interpreted as a consequence to displeasing the deity above. Yet, I believe, such a guilt is not based primarily on ‘wrong actions’ but on a wrong perception viz. that we are or can ever be separate from Divine Love, the Oneness that embraces all within. ‘I have left the Divine and if I were Him/Her/It I would kill me’ is our constant cry within, the ego’s broken record to keep us from awakening to baseline truth. ‘In Him/Her/It we live and move and have our being‘ No hatchet’s being sharpened there!

So, lets get back to the cigarettes. Smoking, like the common man’s ritual sacrifice that it is, carries out the sentence of our ego jury. ‘You deserve to die so die, but do it slowly and be your own firing squad’. Each little 5 minute puff seems to pull the trigger that little bit more, bringing with it a reassuring sense of calmness where the inner angst is stilled under the illusion of justice done.

Unfortunately, like all religious acts of self sacrifice, the psych-spiritual effects are temporary as the ego jury once more sits to pass judgement.

What is the solution? Like religion, it’s better given up; but how?

For some folk sheer self-will seems to do the trick, breaking them free from the psychic attachment involved. However how many folk return once more to the ritual when the inner going gets tough?

I believe that nothing less than a dramatic psycho-spiritual shift is required at the very roots of our being.

Someone needs to turn the Light on, deep within, where the unconscious self loathing that energises our addiction lurks in the shadows. For some therapy may be the road to recovery but ultimately only an overwhelming Spirit encounter will dissolve the lie. ‘Awaken! You are my beloved, loved within and outside time. You dwell within my House, never having left. What separation? Only a fantasy of the night – the time of your slumber.’

Blessings upon all of us who walk in the darkness of addiction. May the morning come as we ditch our religion dressed up as the friend of freedom.

Thanks for your comment Sara. Lovely to hear from you again. It’s interesting that Yeshua, quoting Jewish Scripture claimed that we are ‘elohim’ or gods. Perhaps the sacrifices were outward forms of a split sense of Self. Just thinking out loud again.

“Yeshua, quoting Jewish Scripture claimed that we are ‘elohim’ or gods. Perhaps the sacrifices were outward forms of a split sense of Self. Just thinking out loud again.”

I thought about this recently – actually, just yesterday. Did Jesus really mean that we are gods? If so, why does it strike a nerve for religious folks to call ourselves “gods”? How do you feel about this Dylan?

Thanks for dropping by. I believe Yeshua was primarily using this scripture to show the Scribes that they didn’t believe there own self claimed source of authority viz. their own Scriptures. However he also used it to shatter the belief that man is purely a flesh and blood creature. Are we some way gods in that we carry the Divine spark within i.e. spirit/Spirit, or that it is reignited after encounter with Divine Presence.

The Orthodox Church is into ‘divinization’ as a result of a personal grace intervention. Most Western Christians have been programmed by Augustinian theology, original sin etc that their belief cannot stretch to much beyond escaping so called ‘hell’ by having their sins forgiven – something which would be very strange to the Middle-Eastern Yeshua. Here’s a wee link about ‘divinization’ that make get you into previously unexplored but interesting territory.

Exactly Dylan! I am, you are, all under and in and around Divine Reality. Nice ‘ey.

Still got heaps of struggles but we’re getting through them slowly. This is a very safe, harbouring place I can come. I’ve met the future Mr Plimmer and he is helping deliver me, as I him. It’s all coming up roses (cries with pain but hope).

Indeed Joan. All our addictions are ego attempts at finding the Holy Grail of security. The last place it wants us to look is The Light, that shrivels up the heart of addiction by consuming us with Divine Love.

Will power takes us so far but the intervention of the Spirit Spark is the ignition that our fractured psyches really crave for.

Wonderful, insightful analysis of addiction, which we all seem to succumb to one way or the other, thanks to the old ego and the false assumptions about ourselves we carry around with us. This helped me see into the subject deeper and better. Thanks, Dylan.

Thanks for dropping by Vicki and posting your encouraging comment. Yes, addictions are the fruit of ego birthed from its deception that tells us we are all alone. The cigarette will be your friend! No ~ it will be your prison guard as well as your slow fuse executioner. May the Light of Divine Love flood us all.

Of course the Eastern concept of “That Which Is” (TWI) is not like the western one, where the universe (including you and I) is an artifact of a Creator. As I am understanding basic Hinduism, they see TWI as a sort of Shakespearean stage, and all we but actors upon it.

What is more, we are all manifestations of the Deity (not merely “containing a divine spark”) – a Deity who is dreaming/acting out multiple roles simultaneously. The picture I get is of a really good method-actor so enthralled in his part that he forgets his off-stage persona, and comes to believe himself to be the character he is acting. Now, multiply that by infinity (God being, after all, infinite) and you have one Omni-Deity dreaming/acting out Chris, Dylan, our respective neighbours, their respective dogs, the trees in our respective front yards, the rocks under those trees… etc ad infinitum. He has chosen to pre-program an amnesia into his dream/act so as (in part) to make it more real for himself. The abovementioned excellent actor enters more fully into his character to the degree that he forgets who he is, and the stuff he has going on off-stage and outside the theatre.

So it is that humanity (as little pieces of God, entirely God) have forgotten that this is actually a PLAY, a DREAM, and we have come to THINK that it is reality. This has many consequences, for example, we take the whole shebang far too seriously – like those foolish women who weep over soap-operas, even though they know that the hero “has” to win at the end of the day.

Taking that as a baseline, we have a totally different picture of TWI. For a start, all separateness is an illusion. To fight with you is like setting my right hand to fight with my right one, and see who will win. Answer: no-one, because they are both me, joined at my torso. Panentheism states that all is in God, but that God is beyond all TWI. Secondly, that inescapable binomial existential question, “What is the meaning of life/ What is my purpose in life?” is now answered. The only meaning/purpose is for me to awaken to the above reality – to KNOW that “I am God” (and so are you), and that all TWI is a stage upon which the greatest act of all eternity is being played out.

I’m still getting my teeth into this concept, but it makes SO much more sense than anything in the western Judeo-Christian artifact paradigm, where the artifact may contain part of the artisan, but equally may be disliked by the artisan and separated from him.

An interesting summanation of Hindu thought Chris. It seems though that on closer inspection certain parts of early Hindu thought suggest a theist approach to things. Later sages tended to opt for the pure Monist tradition. Hence like Western Christian thought there exists a subtle diversity in paradigm. That’s why I see Panentheism as the best model for my take on Yeshua and His Divinity, Abba.

My one philosophical problem with the model you suggest above is how God can forget that He is God, like a talented comic impersonator who doesn’t really know who he is.

Can the Divine play dysfunctional parts in a play that are in contradiction to His nature. I stumble at that one, opting instead for my ‘divine spark’ concept in we, His created extensions.

At the end of the day none of us really know – the important and vital thing is to somehow connect to Divine Love, in whatever way we can in this field of dreams.